Pesticides

All in one day, there was a trifecta of good news for agriculture in Hawaii. Let’s hope there is more to come. Farming on Kauai will not require an environmental assessment or impact statement. Despite the efforts of those wanting to keep agriculture in the Victorian era, Judge Randal Valenciano didn’t buy the argument that production […]

In the last post I showed several examples of why pesticides are used in Hawaii’s agriculture. At our nursery (in Kula, Maui) we just found another good example – the Croton caterpillar (Achaea janata) which is was eating its way through the mango blossoms, and just about everything else in its path, including Ohia, Maile […]

The 2017 session of the Hawaii state legislature saw at least 17 bills introduced that deal with pesticide regulation, with many going far beyond what is federally mandated by the EPA. A majority of the proposed legislation claims that these restrictive measures are necessary because of perceived harm to the public or the environment, though […]

Being immobile and mostly lacking in physical armor to ward off threats, plants – including our food crops – have evolved some serious chemical warfare to fight back against all manner of hungry microbes, insects and animals. Over their 500 million year evolution, plants have accumulated an impressive array of natural pesticides which share similar […]

The joint fact finding group looking for evidence of harmful effects from pesticides used by large farms on Kauai gave a presentation in Lihue on Monday evening, which drew a sparse-to-moderate attendance and was a very mild affair. Perhaps this was because the facts had already been published in their draft report, and the finding […]

Later this week a Joint Fact Finding Study Group from Kauai will release their report on pesticide use by large agricultural operations (seed corn and coffee), including any impacts to environmental and human health from such usage. If justified by evidence, they will also make recommendations. The study group was created after passage of Bill […]

The European Food Safety Authority just released their assessment of glyphosate for continued use in countries of the European Union. EFSA’s role is to assess and communicate on all risks associated with the food chain for the European Union. One of their main findings regarding glyphosate: “The substance is unlikely to be genotoxic (i.e. damaging to DNA) […]